Primary cardiac tumours are rare entities and angiosarcoma is the most frequent primary cardiac malignant tumour. Mean survival is six months and the tumour responds poorly to chemotherapy. We present the case of a 50 year-old patient with localised pericardial angiosarcoma who survived 23 months after diagnosis with a combined approach of chemotherapy and surgery.

A 35 years old male presented with a two months history of progressively increasing dyspnoea. On examination he was in respiratory distress, afebrile, had prominent neck veins and an increased area of cardiac dullness. The heart sounds were muffled, and the abdomen was unremarkable except for an enlarged, tender liver. The blood count was normal, but the ESR was raised (60mm). X-ray chest showe...

We describe a technique for repairing the ventricular septal perforation 10 days post acute anteroseptal myocardial infarction using the modi®ed infarction exclusion method. The repair involves endoventricular circular patch plasty and application of gelatin±resorcinol± formaldehyde biological glue in the space between a Te ̄on felt patch on the infarcted septum and a bovine pericardial patch in...

18 patients with malignant effusions were treated with continuous intraperitoneal, intrapleural, or intrapericardial infusion of methotrexate (MTX) 30 mg/m2 per d combined with simultaneous intravenous administration of leucovorin at a dose rate calculated to yield an equimolar concentration in the serum. In the serum the geometric mean steady-state MTX concentration was 0.95 microM, whereas it...

BACKGROUND Pericardial tumours are unusual and may be difficult to characterise with imaging. They manifest as large, non-contractile, solid masses within the pericardium. Presenting symptoms include heart failure, arrythmias, sudden death, cyanosis and chest pain. CASE PRESENTATION We describe a case of massive pericardial fibroma in a 52 year old woman, who presented with palpitations only....

Non-penetrating cardiac traumatisms can cause cardiac rupture, myocardial contusion or, rarely, commotio cordis. In cases of rupture of a cardiac cavity, acute and severe cardiac tamponade almost invariably occurs. This paper presents an exceptionally unusual case of non-penetrating cardiac trauma resulting in right atrium rupture contained by the pericardial cavity. A situation of exceptional ...

An increasing number of congenital abnormalities of the lung is becoming recognized during life. Nineteen such cases of particular interest are described. They have been selected from a group of 37 patients with congenital lung defects, of which 35 have been operated on by one surgeon since 1939. In five cases the intrathoracic abnormalities are threefold, in nine a double abnormality is presen...

A 66 year old man with no previous oesophageal symptoms developed acute dysphagia and vomiting shortly after a large meal. About 16 hours later a large piece of meat was removed from the oesophagus at the 30 cm level under general anaesthesia through a rigid oesophagoscope. The surgeon who performed the endoscopy explored the distal oesophagus for strictures and noticed that the oesophagoscope ...